How old is old enough

For a bit of context this is how my "forced parenting" is going for our children. The middle boy 9 loves to tramp he always has he even suggested me and his mum quit work so we can climb mountains all day. When I come home from work he is always ready to hit the firebreaks. During tramps he can blow his arse out a bit. But we just let him do his thing and I strap his pack to my chest (though I can't anymore as his little brother is now strapped there). The oldest 12 can have his moments. Usually prior to a tramp or hill walk. He will moan and make excuses. But always half an hour into it his endorphins kick in and he has a ball. Me and mum just look at each other and grin. During the tramp he is as tough as nails and afterwards struts around like a mountain man. Whether they kids enjoy it or not I feel seeds are sown that they can reap later in life. Like in Kiels case or Honoras above. We have photo albums of our adventures and they boys know they have a cool life. They have tons more confidence than their friends and are reasonably discipled hard working young men whom I love and am extremely proud of. I mean it's better than letting them eat junk food all day and play PlayStation, and wrapping them up in cotton wool.

Excursions into the outdoors with young children tends to be self regulating. If it is not fun, people stop doing it. It is not something everyone can or should do.

My partner took his 5 and 6 year olds up to Temple Basin. The girl was too embarassed to go for a pee so ended up doing the inevitable after holding on for a few hours. Neither of them have ever gone back country since.

That's the advantage of starting them young in the outdoors. At one and a half or two they're quite happy squatting and peeing behind a bush. There's quite a few things you need to teach the young ones to function happily in the outdoors. Peeing in the bushes, drinking from streams, putting wet socks on again in the morning, wiping the snot from their nose with their left glove and the sweat from their eyes with their right glove... Once you've got the kids trained, you can get them on to training their mother. Once they're bigger, not being able to pee in the outdoors can be a major problem, if they're too scared / embarrassed to pee, they'll avoid drinking enough water and get badly dehydrated.

"There's quite a few things you need to teach the young ones to function happily in the outdoors: Peeing in the bushes, drinking from streams, putting wet socks on again in the morning, wiping the snot from their nose with their left glove and the sweat from their eyes with their right glove... " Anyone care to add to this list of things you need to teach kids at a young age / things that people who didn't grow up tramping and camping have missed out on learning?

"wiping the snot from their nose with their left glove and the sweat from their eyes with their right glove... " ?????? That might explain my glue eye

So we are back from our tramp and it was a roaring success. My 7 week old baby slept on my chest the whole way. 17 river crossings and I(we) didn't fall in. He relaxed in the hut with mum, and was the same on the hike out. He slept well and actually slept better than at home wrapped in my down jacket snuggled between me and mum. My cousins 5 year old boy made it the 10 km plus to the hut on his on 2 feet . He didn't take a dip once though the river was fuller than normal and sometimes up to his chest. He had a ball hunting for yeti though has yet to see one. He was carried on my cousins shoulder a bit on the way back. But he still held his own. Two more trampers added to my list. The two older boys 12 & 9 had a ball like normal and we're happy to show their little cousin the art of tramping life, suffice to say another family tramp is being planned for the not to distant future. Oh and Gilly the dog had a great two days as well.

"He had a ball hunting for yeti though has yet to see one." Did he check under all the rocks?